Dynamic Africa: A Social Sector Data Jam

The Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Knowledge Initiative invite you to 4-hour Data Jam – Dynamic Africa: A Social Sector Data Jam – on Monday, July 11, 2016 from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM in Washington DC.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dynamic-africa-a-social-sector-data-jam-tickets-26001001696

The goal? To spot new trends in Sub-Saharan Africa, learn a cutting-edge data mapping tool, and help The Rockefeller Foundation identify the next $100 million idea for social impact.

We will be mining for signals of emerging change in Sub-Saharan Africa using Mappr—a next-generation network-mapping tool. Mappr’s creators met as TED Fellows and built a platform to synthesize and visualize data to reveal non-obvious patterns, trends, and information hidden in complex, high dimensional data. We will use Mappr to analyze a dataset of thousands of news stories aggregated by AllAfrica. AllAfrica posts over 1,200 stories daily from over 140 African news organizations with the aim to reflect the diversity of issues, opinions, and stakeholders across the continent.

We believe that the best people to harness Mappr’s potential to identify trends in Sub-Saharan Africa are folks like you—young, creative big-picture thinkers seated at the intersection of the social sector and big data. Please join us for an afternoon of innovative thinking and learning! And, of course, there will be snacks, beer, wine, and soda to fuel the creative process. (Note: This event is BYOLaptop!)

Who should come?

If you are a young, creative thinker with experience working at the intersection of data, technology, and social change, you should come!
If you work in international development, you should come!
If you are interested in systems change, you should come!
If you have experience data mining, you should come!
If your work requires having a nuanced, original take on political, economic, and social happenings in Sub-Saharan Africa, you should come!
If you want to help nonprofit players, like The Rockefeller Foundation and its dozens of grantees, better use data and collaboration for impact, you should come!
For all coders out there: We will not be coding or hacking into Mappr’s code, but if you are willing to bring your brilliant mind to our creative gathering, we would be delighted!

How does it work?

In this 4-hour Data Jam, participants will manipulate and interpret a dataset of thousands of African news articles from allafrica.com using Mappr. During the first hour, GKI will host a live demo of the Mappr tool using the allafrica.com dataset. After the demo, the fun begins!

Working in teams of 2-3, participants will spend two hours developing two products: recipes and thematic trends. A “recipe” is a step-by-step process of manipulating the data using Mappr’s filtering criteria. A “thematic trend” will indicate a signal or trend emerging from Africa. In other words, a thematic trend is the output of applying a recipe just like a cake is the output of following a recipe. You will be looking for unique recipes for manipulation that provoke us to identify clusters of data that could be indicative of new trends in African development.

And, because there’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, prizes will be awarded for the team(s) that create the most recipes/clusters and the crowd-favorite recipe/cluster. And, of course, there will be snacks, beer, wine, and soda to fuel the creative process.

FAQs
What should I bring?

This Data Jam is BYOLaptop. Mappr is a cloud-based, browser-based tool, so come ready to play around with the tool on your laptop. Other than that, we hope you’ll walk into the room with an open mind and both feet firmly rooting in the future.
Are there prizes?

Yes! There will be drinks and snacks, and also some friendly competition to produce (1) the most recipes and clusters (i.e., a sheer volume assault on the data), and (2) the most interesting recipes and clusters, as judged by your peers (i.e., the crowd favorite).
What will GKI do with my ideas?

The final stage of the Dynamic Africa: A Social Sector Data Jam will take place in the weeks following the July 11 event. GKI will take your recipes and clusters and use them to dig much deeper into Mappr’s data in order to detect additional trends and areas of dynamism within the realm of African development. This work will feed directly into The Rockefeller Foundation’s investment pipeline process, and compelling recipes and insights will be cited and featured on the Foundation’s blog.
Will there be food and beverages?

Of course! Snacks, beer, wine, and soda are necessary fuel for any creative process (or at least this one). Would you like to speak to someone? Contact Renee Vuillaume, Program Officer, GKI: renee@gkinitiative.org

When
Monday, July 11, 2016 from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT) - Add to Calendar
Where
American Association for the Advancement of Science - 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005 - View Map